may never know. We can guess
that the separation was not com-
pletely hostile because of a
March 8, 1904 Davis patent of a
"coin-detector for coin-actuated
devices" for Advance that was
very similar to the Advance
Climax machine and his later
collaboration on the Advance
Match Vendor (Figure 6). There
~~----~
Figure 6
may have been some degree of
separation from the company that allowed Davis to
work with ( or sell ideas to) Coleman Hardware, as
evidenced by his 1908 and 1909 patents on the
Chicago machine (Figures
__ _
7 & 8). Because it often
took 2 to 5 years from the
time a patent was prepared
until it was granted, it is
likely that Davis began :,t:"'..._, "~
work on the Chicago around
Figures 7 & 8
the time he left the Advance Machine Company cor-
porate roster.
B.M . Davis remained active in the
·/E ~~ design of vending machines in Chicago
r--==- Mj and by 1911 he had filed the patent
application for the Advance Match
Vendor. When the patent (#1 ,173,489)
.
was granted in 1916, the patent rights
Figure 9 were ass1gne
•
d b y D av1s
• to Cl arence
Travis (Figure 9). While this could suggest that
Davis was employed by Advance, the fact that
Davis also had a December 17, 1916
~:.
patent (#1,208,921, Figure 10) who's - ;;-l-,:7'"-
rights were assigned to Post-Card
;)f::1;
-~1..;._~
vending Machine Company of
Chicago, suggests that he may have -"c!;: ':,:-,, _
been more of a free-lance designer. ·-
-
There may have been some interaction Figure IO
between companies so that Davis might still have
been a valued employee of Advance at the time he
was designing the Chicago Nut Vendor. We may
never know.
Davis' designs were not only beautiful; he was an
innovator as well. We are all familiar with the
ring is a single unit but the sim-
ilarity in concept and decora-
tion seem almost too much of a
coincidence. Even though the
Advance Machine Company
was also located in Chicago,
Figure 5
this seems to be too much of a
similarity for there not to have been a connection.
The connection was the somewhat enigmatic figure,
Bethuel M. Davis of Chicago.
To explore the impact of Bethuel Davis, we must
go back to 1901 and the first time the Advance
Machine Company appears in the Chicago City
Directory. That City Directory contains the simple
entry "Advance Machine Company; CC Travis
Pres: BM Davis Sec, 194 S Clinton." The first list-
ing of the Advance Machine Company in the
Certified List of Illinois Corporations (1903) lists a
capital stock or $50,000 but curiously enough lists
A.J. Travis as the secretary. What had happened to
the founding secretary and who was A.J. Travis?
The second question is easier than the first.
Clarence C. Travis was founder and president of the
Advance Machine Company for many years. He
was president through Advance's move from its first
location at 194 S. Clinton to its permanent home at
4641-47 N. Ravenswood Ave. some time between
1905 and 1911. Clarence was variously listed as
President or President-Treasurer up through 1928-
1929, and it wasn't until 1950 that H. Gilmore
Walter (Advance's last Chicago President) was list-
ed in the corporate listings. In Advance Machine's
first corporate listing, both Clarence and A.J. Travis
listed the same home address (1123 Asbury Ave.,
Evanston, Illinois) which strongly suggests a family
relationship (brother?, son?, wife?). A.J. Travis
continued to be active in the corporate roster mov-
ing from secretary to Vice President in 1916, being
replaced by Albert E. Gilbert as Secretary. A.J.
Travis' role as Vice President continued at least until
1929.
What had happened to Bethuel Davis is , at this
point, somewhat conjectural. Has there been a
"falling out" between he and Clarence Travis? Was
this a planned phase in of a family member? We
:Jt:F
5